Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion All the things we want to chatter about Astarion & other stuff, without hijacking another thread :)

Hopefully this comment is OK on this thread (All things Astarion, not including Patch 6 or 7 kisses)

I have been watching Patch 7 videos on Youtube, eager to see the changes (happy to be spoiled) and I came across a reveal of Spawn Astarion's new reaction if your Tav has a one night stand with Mizora.

I just wanted to share with you all that I don't like the changes, to me the original reaction rang true to Astarion's character and made a lot of sense for a Vampire who's morality is naturally different ( but that just could just be how I see vampires ). I know my opinion on this change is likely to be in the minority, a lot of romancers want to feel rewarded for being loyal and don't have a polyamory romance with Halsin etc... and can be a little judge-y dare I say, towards others who do romance Halsin as well.

I personally don't feel the need to put human limited lifetime morals onto a vampire existence. Astarion (all things going well), will outlive their Tav who will eventually grow old and become rather boring (unless your Tav ascends him and agrees to become his Consort).

To my mind Astarion's original reaction was so him, he teases Tav about it and wants the juicy details, he is not threatened or bothered as he is confident of their relationship and Tav's commitment. Sex isn't confused with Love.

When I did my Spawn playthrough I chose not to sleep with the Drow twins because it clearly made him uncomfortable. I interpreted his discomfort though not to be about Tav wanting sex with the Twins but more to do with the fact that he didn't want sex, period, as he is healing from 100s years of using sex (not by choice), to serve someone else, his feelings be dammed, so taking a break from sex was him reclaiming himself, reclaiming his body. Not a judgment on Tav's commitment to their relationship or putting his current feelings about sex onto Tav.

When you stand up for him with Araj, he confesses his original intentions were to manipulate Tav through sex, and that he now has feelings for Tav and is now free to choose, free to say no.

My point is that in my playthrough, Tav never felt judged by Astarion for wanting to experience life, afterall Astarion has had 100s of lovers, and will live long after Tav is dead. My Tav had a polyamory relationship with Haslin, a one night stand with Mizora and a sexy encounter with Harleep and finishes the game, hand in hand with Spawn Astarion, on a mission to find him a way for him to be in the Sun again.

If anyone out there can hear my plea and can publish a mod that will give me the original Spawn dialogue and reaction to the night with Mizora, I'll be very grateful, and I am pretty sure I won't be the only Spawn Astarion romancer out there that will appreciate you.

I enjoy both Spawn and Ascended storylines, I think Astarion is a lot of fun either path and if you want to show your loyalty and devotion to him by turning down all other offers you can easily do that, for me, this is fantasy, and my vampire wants Tav to enjoy what life has to offer as long as they are loyal. And trust me, they will never stray too far, they would never dream of doing that

Please be kind in your comments if you disagree.

To be honest, this thread is a very light hearted one and it's more of chat than a discussion, that was created to be separate from the other heavier AA thread, and so far I've only seen conversations about AA in here. You might not receive as many replies here as you'd like because of it.

Personally, I don't have a preference when it comes to this scene in UA's case. I remember hearing that UA's dialogue was actually bugged and not even triggering in the first place.

I think your criticism is valid and it might be a good idea to bring it up as feedback for Larian directly. The topics you brought up were actually mentioned in this thread, which is all about Astarion romance and all iterations of it, as well as things for Larian to be aware of: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=919717&page=38

The new spawn dialogue was also briefly mentioned there previously and we shared links to mods we liked in relation to other aspects of the romance.

There is also another thread specifically about UA here: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=901455&page=24

Thank you Ametris for your objection. In fact, this thread is more about things that are fictional or ideas, scenes from the game, preferably with AA, with Sceleritas being our actual hero and of course Astarion Junior and their adventures together. We would like to keep this thread as light-hearted as before and I ask that you choose other threads for such topics. Ametris has linked more suitable ones there.

I could have renamed the thread to Sceleritas, Astarion Junior, the Dark Urge and the guy who threw dirt at me.

Thank you and have fun in Patch 7

That sounds more fitting.

So, I noticed that Astarion has new animations during the epilogue party and my favourite line from it "I am always watching" is also different now. I think he looks a bit more commanding, proud and confident as a proper vampire lord should, rather than yandere, possessive and kinda funnily unhinged as before. I think it's an improvement, but I got used to that evil gremlin face and will miss it. I still find his attempts to appear scary cute. What do you l think? Which one do you prefer?

I like his "grumpy" face, I always had the urge to bite the tip of his nose. The new facial expression is more dignified, not so suspicious, perhaps even slightly surprised. I think I like the new facial expression better. He looks younger, it suits him well. Of course we don't tell him that.

*whispers* "Darling, smile a little, this isn't your funeral." "Then the wine would definitely be better. Who chose this dirty water? They should have let me host the party, but for reasons I don't understand, this mummy did it. Does he have any sense of taste? If I see his robe, I would say "Clearly not". Fashionably a crime... here darling, drink this wine, it's still bad, but not as terrible as the others."

*bites Astarion on the tip of his nose*

Yes, I noticed these changes right away too, while testing. I am definitely going to miss his old evil-smile yandere face lmao, because that's how I remember it, and thought it was funny too.^^ sigh. At least I recorded my playthrough where he had the old expressions. But I do like the new one and the way he's lifting his face up so proudly at the end, like he does sometimes during other dialogues in the game.

I wanted to make a quick side-by-side comparison video on this, actually.^^ That way the changes can be seen more clearly.
Still waiting for the 3rd party mods to work for me again :'(

Haha, I always had the urge to touch the tip of his nose with an index finger and tease him "You're always so adorable when you're trying to be scary, darling. Watch me all you like, because I've got my eyes on you too, my dearest lord."

It's better they changed it, because the previous expression always made me laugh and it looked more like an empty threat from someone who randomly got their knickers in a twist. Now he indeed looks more dignified and convincing. At least now I actually believe him he might come up with some delightful "punishment" if Tav appears to be too flirtatious with someone else (his bitter rival God Gale especially!).